Rice and Noodles

For over a thousand years, rice, with its high nutritional value, has been the most popular and favoured staple food of the Chinese, both in the north and in the south. There are two main types of rice, the common or non-glutinous (non-sticky) kind, and the glutinous (sticky) kind. The non-glutinous has two varieties: indica or xian, the long-grained rice which is favoured by the Chinese for everyday consumption, and japonica or geng, the short-grained rice which is favoured by the Japanese. The most commonly grown glutinous rice is the white variety, followed by the black, but there are also rarer varieties, such as that known as ‘blood-glutinous’, a pinkish-red rice grown in small quantities along the Yangzi (Yangtze) River. The modern trend, however, particularly in Taiwan and the Philippines, has been to produce ‘miracle’ rices – hybrids between the long-grain and the short-grain rices which are considered to have the perfect balance of texture and also produce larger yields. Another variety which has found favour with southern Chinese in recent years is Thai rice, which is also known as ‘fragrant’ rice because of the sweet scent it imparts when cooked.